A little announcement to start off today's chapter! From now on, I will be writing in past tense. It's easier for me to read and write and I like it better than present tense unless it's in first person. And I don't really want to do first person. Unless I do it for a Frisk chapter later on. Either way, that was just what I wanted to tell you guys!

P. S. Happy late anniversary, Undertale!

CHAPTER NINE

.:EMILY:.

Emily stared at Papyrus as he sent an attack, which she easily dodged. Was this suppose to be hard? The MERCY button had been pressed repeatedly, and he was still attacking.

Papyrus had his signature grin on. "So you won't fight me? Then let's see if you can handle my fabled blue attack!" He sent a bunch of bones at them. The only one who dodged them all successfully was Harmony. When the others were hit, their souls turned blue.

"Ooh! My soul is blue now!" Ethan grinned, his eyes stars. He got excited very easily.

"Aw, yeah!" Aiden looked pretty happy. He liked the color blue, but not more than the color his soul already was, which was yellow.

"We're the blue gang now!" Ethan exclaimed, looking at all of his friends. Harmony simply grinned.

Emily frowned, "I kind of liked mine," Those were the words that came out of her best friend's mouth.

Tessa seemed to be twirling her blonde hair around her finger, "Didn't you like the green?"

Emily frowned with a nod, "Yeah. I did."

Ivan looked shook. He started scribbling things down vigorously in his notebook. He was scribbling so fast and so hard he nearly ripped the pages. Aiden took his notebook away, "Dude, calm down!"

Ivan reached for it. His voice was still monotone, "Aiden! Give it back!"

Aiden opened it up to read one of the pages and his brother practically tackled him and took his notebook back. His face held no emotion, but he looked unamused. He glared at his older brother.

And yes, all of this happened while Papyrus stood there, "..."

"Anyways, back to fighting!" Aiden ignored his brother's glare and kept his gun in his holster. He didn't know what could happen if he tried shooting one of the bones.

Papyrus dabbed Some marinara sauce behind his ear- Wait. Wait. Wait. ("HOW?!" screamed the author who didn't know if she was coming down with a cold or just had allergies) Skeletons don't have ears. Welp. Don't ask me why Papyrus pulled this stunt.

Emily waited for Papyrus to launch the next attack, which he did. She found herself unable to dodge from side to side.

"Jump!" exclaimed Harmony, jumping over the bones like it was just something she did in her ballet class.

Aiden pretty much held his brother's hand to make sure he jumped at the right time. Ivan let him do that as he held his notebook tightly.

Tessa jumped over a few bones, stumbling before falling to the ground. Emily helped her back to her feet. The battle wasn't too intense. Ethan hopped over the bones like a bunny rabbit.

"Look at me Harmony! I'm a bunny rabbit!" He called over causing Harmony to giggle. She was so distracted that she was hit by a bone. Ethan felt bad and frowned. He slipped through a bunch of bones as he went to help her up. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah." She nodded, offering a crooked smile.

A smile appeared on Emily's lips from the distance. "Harmony x Ethan. It's my OTP."

Ivan pushed up his glasses. He seemed to understand shipping better. "It is my one true pairing as well." He agreed, and the two were lucky they were in a safe distance from the pair. He jumped up when Aiden did, causing the brothers to be in perfect synchronization.

The ribbon in Tessa's hair, which was red, flung behind her as she jumped over the bones. Papyrus was getting tired.

Aiden yawned and kept jumping over bones. "This is boring."

"I think it's fun!" Harmony countered as she leaped over another bone.

"Me too!" agreed Ethan as he slid to the side to dodge a bone.

"Could be worse..." Ivan muttered with a small shrug.

"Get ready for my special attack!" Papyrus exclaimed, holding his head high.

"Ooh!" Ethan seemed excited at this.

"Sounds interesting!" remarked Emily, eyeing Papyrus.

A few more attacks were sent at them before Papyrus grinned even wider. "Behold...! My special attack!" A dog walked into the battle and nommed on the bone.

"What the heck!" Papyrus shouted, surprised. "That's supposed to be my special attack."

Aiden snickered. "Not a very good one if you ask me."

Tessa gave him a disapproving glance before focusing back on the battle.

"Hey! You stupid dog!" The dog looked up at him with wide eyes. "Stop munching on that bone!"

The dog slunk back and started to walk away.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE WITH MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus demanded, stomping his foot angrily while the SOULS blinked at him.

He then sighed. "I'll just use a super cool, amazing, and spectacular regular attack. He sent a powerful, yet still regular, attack at the group. Tessa's HP dropped to 2.

Papyrus panted as he sent one last bone. "Well... it's clear to me... that you cannot defeat me! You are shaking in your boots!"

"No, we aren't!" Aiden huffed, folding his arms.

Papyrus ignored Aiden. "Therefore, I, The Great Papyrus, am electing to grant you my pity."

"We don't need your-" Tessa slammed her hand over Aiden's mouth. She was too tired to verbally shush him.

"So, The Great Papyrus will spare you!" Emily clicked the MERCY button and they spared Papyrus.

"Nyoo hoo hoo..." Papyrus was turned away from the humans. "I'm incapable of capturing such weak humans like you..."

"Hey!" Ethan protested, but of course he was more amusing when he was angry than scary. "We are not weak!"

He sighed, not responding. "Undyne will be so disappointed in me... and I'll never become a member of the royal guard... and my friend status will remain stagnant."

"We can be friends!" Emily exclaimed as a suggestion.

"You want to be friends... with me?" Papyrus asked, his voice now raised.

"Sure! We could do that!" Harmony nodded quickly.

"Fine with me." Tessa offered a small shrug.

"I do not see why not." Ivan's glasses flashed.

"Yeah! Let's be friends!" Ethan pumped a fist in the air. Aiden said nothing. They all stared at him.

"...fine."

"I suppose I can be friends with all of you... WOWIE! I have friends!" Papyrus looked happy. "And I didn't know that all I had to do to make friends was to make terrible puzzles and then fight them!"

Everyone blinked, but nodded. He was Papyrus! What did you expect? A figure was behind him. Ethan was instantly on edge. "Who's that?" He pointed behind Papyrus, and everyone looked behind the skeleton.

"I've heard a lot about you." The feminine voice said, stepping into view. "I'm Frisk. Nice to meet you."

Papyrus gasped, putting his hands to his face. "Human Frisk!"

Chara floated next to her. "Heya~"

"Wait... you're the other human?" Emily questioned. Frisk nodded, slightly grinning.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Ethan!" The bravery soul stuck out his hand for Frisk to shake. A small chuckle before Frisk shook his hand. "We should all hang out sometime."

"Why not at my house?!" Papyrus offered. "Human Frisk hasn't been there in forever!"

"I'd be down with that." Frisk shrugged. Chara hovered a few inches above the ground.

"I think that sounds good." nodded Emily in agreement.

Tessa offered a thumbs up. Her voice was quiet. "Okay..."

Ethan grinned. "Yeah! A hangout at Papyrus and Sans's home!"

Harmony looked at her feet. "Sure..."

Aiden sighed, wanting to move on to Waterfall, but nodding his head and unenthusiastically pumping a fist. "Yay. Let's go."

"Perfect!" So the group headed off.

Frisk tossed her hair out of her face, inspecting everyone. She noticed the relationship between Ethan and Harmony, so she decided to ask a question, "Are you two like boyfriend or girlfriend?" She asked with a yawn.

Harmony's face reddened. "No! Why would you think that!"

"I dunno it just seems like it."

Harmony huffed.

Ethan froze for a moment. Wait... did that mean what he thought it meant... he remembered a long time ago that someone had asked if she was his girlfriend and he told them yes. She was his friend, and was a girl! But that wasn't what the boy meant. He meant dating wise, didn't he? Ethan felt stupid. He had completely zoned out. He blushed out of embarrassment.

"Um... Ethan?" Harmony poked him.

"Huh? Um... what?"

"You zoned out..." Harmony looked away. Was Ethan... blushing? She had never seen him blush. He never did. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Ethan waved it off as if it was nothing.

Harmony frowned. What wasn't he telling her? She felt awkward so she kind of edged away and decided to talk to Frisk instead. "So... who's your pal?"

"You mean this hot ghost? His name is Chara." Frisk explained to her. Harmony blinked at her. Chara waved with a yawn. "Do any of you have ghost chocolate?" He asked abruptly.

"No..." Aiden grumbled. "None of us are dead."

Chara's red eyes glowed. "Not yet you aren't."

Tessa stepped a little farther away from him. She didn't like that ghost. Or Frisk. They seemed... strange.

Harmony seemed to trust them. That was her weakness. It wasn't hard for Chara to see. But he wouldn't think of doing anything. After all, he was a ghost.

Ethan kept trying to meet her glance, but she wouldn't look at him. He felt bad... but he didn't know what he did. He decided to talk to Ivan instead. "So... what's in that notebook?"

"Stuff." He replied simply. He was clutched to his notebook.

"What kind of stuff?" He asked curiously.

"Just... stuff." He shrugged. Ethan wouldn't understand what was in his notebook. So he didn't tell him.

Emily walked next to Tessa and Frisk, Harmony being on the other side of Frisk. "So... what's your soul color?"

Frisk's soul appeared in front of her. "Red."

"That's cool! Mine's green!" Her soul appeared.

Frisk had a slight grin. "Red and Green... those are nice colors."

"And Christmas colors." added Tessa quietly.

"Christmas is... alright." Aiden didn't like Christmas all that much... it only made him remember what he'd rather forget.

"I love Christmas!" exclaimed Ethan, jumping up in the air. No reaction from Harmony.

Harmony liked spending Christmas with Ethan, but the one thing that was still nagging her from Christmas was that they were under the mistletoe at some point when Ethan had a Christmas party, and Harmony choked on her glass of water. Ethan didn't seem to notice however, so she was glad about that.

Ethan's shoulders slumped. Why wouldn't she just look at him?!

"Hey... Ethan. Are you okay?" Emily asked him, concerned for her friend's well-being.

"Do you know why Harmony's ignoring me?" He blurted out. Luckily, there was enough distance between the pair and the rest of the group for anyone to notice.

"Ignoring you? What do you mean?"

"She looks away from me every time I try to meet her gaze... I don't know what I did."

Emily looked over at Harmony, who seemed to be farther ahead of the rest of the group. She noticed she had a kicked puppy expression...

"Strange..." Emily frowned. "Maybe try talking to her?"

Ethan nodded in understanding and sped ahead of most of the group. He slowed to the same pace as Harmony when he reached her. "Hey!"

"Hi, Ethan." She waved halfheartedly, not looking at him.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked as soon as she had finished saying his name.

"I'm fine." She sighed, averting his gaze. "It's nothing."

"Come on, if it's nothing, then you'll look at me!"

"I don't want to." She replied firmly.

"Harmony! I don't even know what I did wrong!"

No reply.

Ethan grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. She just looked... disappointed. As if she had been hurt by someone.

Harmony pulled away. She knew he still cared, but Ethan was always an outlet to how she was feeling. They didn't keep secrets from each other. It wasn't something they did. They were the best of friends. Harmony just felt that he probably liked someone and was stupid for thinking he had a chance of liking her.

Ethan watched her carry on. He just stood there, dumbfounded.

Aiden patted his back. "Sorry, dude. Best just to leave her alone for now."

"I guess so..." He mumbled.

Emily glanced at Harmony. She would have to talk to her.

Papyrus ended up passing his house and then making a U turn to get back to it. "We're here!" He announced. He opened the door.

Emily looked inside. It was going to be a long day.

Haha I'm evil